The invention concerns a gauge on a pipe section, such as a temperature gauge, consisting of a pipe section and a welded adapter which can accommodate a probe.
It is the task of the invention to create a cost-effective solution for a gauge on a pipe section without any dead areas. Therefore, a design should be created in which it is possible to change the measuring probe, without opening or interrupting the circuit of the medium to be measured. These tasks are solved with a system as described in the independent claims.
According to the invention, the gauge comprises a flat spot in which an adapter can be introduced through a circular opening.
The adapter as well as the flat spot arc formed so that they are flowed against in a streamlined way. Thanks to the flat spot, a level area is created in which the adapter can be introduced via an automatic welding process, such as the TIG welding procedure. In this procedure, the workpiece is stretched and turned, or alternatively the welding nozzle can turn around the workpiece.
Such processes as “orbital welding attachments,” the examination of a welding seam, or the uniform shaping of a welding seam on the far side of the welding nozzle, the inner surface of a wall, are already varied and available and constitute the state of the art with this process, already applied in the pipe work of mass production equipment in the food processing industry and luxury food industry.
In addition to the simplicity of processing the advantageous feature with this arrangement is that no dead room in created, in which the leavings of a medium can accumulate.
With foodstuffs, the smallest clinging remnants in niches or turnoffs suffice to corrupt subsequent processing, due to the by-products that result (germs, bacteria).
By-products develop, for example, during production stoppages, when these accumulating remnants cannot be reached, detached or rinsed out, even by flushing, because the flow doesn't reach these niches. The flow in some areas is “nil,” and they are therefore called unreachable dead areas.
Furthermore, the gauge uses a closed adapter which introduces a gauge into the process in the form of a dip pipe or a guard pipe.
The advantage is that during the ongoing process a measuring probe can be removed from the adapter or exchanged without the medium coming out or coming into contact with the outer environment (air, oxygen).
The measuring probe can, for example, consist of a temperature measuring probe with an encapsulated PT 100 precision resistor.
It is furthermore conceivable that other measurement categories, such as flow, pressure or fill level, would be measurable with this adapter.
For temperature measurement, it is sensible to place the probe by means of a guard pipe in the center of the pipe, whereas for pressure measurement in place of the guard pipe a membrane can be introduced into the adapter. If one now fills the adapter with diaphragm seal fluid such as sunflower oil, the pressure of the medium can be transmitted to a pressure measurement device.